I seem to be the latest victim of stripped bolt heads, my Wife's 2003 Camry, 153K miles.

Ordered the NS300L insert kit and will have them put in next week.

Now here is the thing I want to discuss and get opinions on.

About a month ago, the serpentine belt in this car went, and my wife drove it home, about ten miles so naturally the engine overheated.

After replacing the belt I went to refill the radiator and found something most peculiar. The inner lip of the radiator where the cap seals was coated with a greasy sort of substance. When I cleaned it away I saw the lip was rotted away.

I installed a new radiator and refilled. Took it for a drive and within an hour I started to hear a sloshing noise from the dash. Once home, I check the overflow, saw it was bubbling and knew the head gasket was gone.

My wife later informed me that she had been seeing white smoke from the exhaust for several months.

Now I am wondering if the exhaust had been getting into the coolant for so long that as it vented through the cap, the vapors rotted the plastic turning it into the greasy residue?

Anyone ever hear of something like that happening?

 

Overheating has a tendency to blow head gaskets.

Exhaust gas can get into the coolant system when the head gasket blows or perhaps when if the threads stripped out.

Suggest doing a forum site search, there is a long series of posts on this engines thread problems.

 

I read all the headgasket/headbolt threads, that is how I came to realize what the cause of the blown headgasket was.

The puzzle I wish to solve is what casued the radiator rim to rot away.

 

Don't know.

Was the coolant ever changed?

 

Figured out the mystery.

Apparently the head gasket was bad for long before the overheat.

Exhaust gases pushing hydrocarbons through the radiator cap softened the plastic lip into the gooey paste.

On a side note, have 6000 miles on the engine since repaired with NL3000 inserts and it's running fine.

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